U.S. Bishops Seek to Match Vatican in Shifting Tone

NEW ORLEANS — They are rethinking what kinds of houses they live in, and what kinds of cars they drive. They are wondering whether, in anticipation of the 2016 presidential election, they need to rewrite their advice to parishioners to make sure that poverty, and not just abortion, is discussed as a high-priority issue. And they are trying to get better about returning phone calls, reaching out to the disenchanted and the disenfranchised, and showing up at events.

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But the bishops are clearly watching with interest. “Priests and bishops are paying close attention to what he’s saying, and reading it,” John Garvey, the president of the Catholic University of America, said in a telephone interview. Mr. Garvey said he was struck by how often church officials mentioned to him something the pope had only just said. “I don’t remember hearing that in the past about Benedict and John Paul.”